61: The Start of a Day Off

The holiday I’ve been waiting for… It took a long time to get here.

I was doing office work under His Highness Ludens, and they were probably waiting to see how I work, because the work I do isn’t very difficult. The majority of my work consisted of making copies of documents. And sometimes I would also brew tea. This may be the first time I’ve felt so relaxed.

Oh, the tea was brewed by the maids in the room, so I made sure to tell them when I wanted to brew tea.

If I don’t cooperate with the girls around me, then my life here would be very uncomfortable… I would actively ask His Highness and the others if I could 『give the leftover high-class sweets』to the maids. I didn’t compliment the maids directly, but I did compliment them in front of His Highness Ludens. This was the point. They did look at me suspiciously because of that, but weren’t directly assaulting or harassing me.

The problem right now was that His Highness Ludens didn’t leave the Royal Capital’s Public Order Consolation Room if there wasn’t anything like a ball or night audience. It might be possible for Roberto-sama, Lancel-sama and Leyard-sama to leave early since they were close with His Highness, but I couldn’t just say, “I’ll be off first,” and leave, so I accompanied him until he said, “You can leave now.” As a reason, I always ran to the dining hall and made it there just before they closed. My hair was dishevelled, my dress was a mess and I could only eat rice.

I got up early in the morning and returned late at night, so I had yet to meet my neighbours in the government residence. I was so mentally tired on days when I could go home early and just went straight to sleep. The only time I talked to Susan-obaasan as Ayesha-marie was when I wanted to ask her something. I wanted to have a normal conversation with someone…

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But, today is my day off.

I also thought about staying in the government residence today, but I hadn’t been to town in a long time, so I tied my hair up in a ponytail, put on the milk tea coloured dress and strolled around town. I took a deep breath and stretched my arms towards the sky.

“I feel good. The sky is blue and I also did my laundry today. Ayesha is great!”

The parent and child, who were walking past me, looked at me and giggled.

How nice.

I’m Ayesha right now, so no one would criticise me. I don’t have to put on my noble mask.

I wonder if I should eat something from a food cart today. I made some money after all.

I bought a dumpling with sweet sauce on it, sat on a stone bench and stuffed my cheeks.

“It’s delicious to eat it this way!”

I licked my lips before the sauce dripped out. That was a close one. I nearly stained my skirt.

Luckily, I didn’t know anyone, so no one would care if I behave badly. Eating food in a delicious way is the best.

A shadow appeared before me for some reason while I was eating.

“Hey, oi. Is that you Ayesha? How are you?”

“… Huh?”

I swallowed the dumpling and looked up at the voice…… Huh? That’s a familiar face.

Why is he here?!?!?!

“Is that you Dick-san? It has been a while.”

I looked up and saw Dick-san’s falcon-like eyes. He was wearing his black guard’s uniform and a dark green cloak. He looked very handsome. He attracted everyone’s attention with his hands fisted in the air. He was glistening gold in some places and he attracted people’s attentions for better or for worse.

He was acting friendly, but his eyes were sharp and they were locked on me.

“Why are you here?”

“Today’s my day off, so I thought about going to the shop where Bobles-san’s brother works. I could ask the same to you Dick-san, what are you doing here?”

“I came to the Royal Capital for work. I was heading towards the 『Hen Inn』because I heard it was a good place to stay. Luckily, I also know guards in the 2^nd station that’s next to the inn.”

We looked at each other and headed towards the same direction while nodding.

Dick-san drew people’s attention just by walking because he was so tall. I could tell that woman and children were glancing at him and following him with their eyes.

(Is Dick-san famous? He is eye-catching. People like him are popular too. He has a high position in the guards after all. I’ll be troubled if I get caught up in a rumour because of this.)

I was walking next to him, but then I slowed down little by little until I was walking behind him.

“… Oh, am I walking too fast?”

“No, don’t worry about it…”

“… Am I going the right way?”

“You are.”

My concerns weren’t conveyed to Dick-san.

In the end, I quickened my pace and lead him to Hen Inn.

I didn’t want to talk about private things with His Highness Ludens or Roberto-sama and the others, so I quickly looked for Ada-san.